Shelf support



Oct. 24, 1950 H. T. JACKSON ETAL I 2,527,132

SHELF SUPPORT Filed March 1'7, 1944 k lfl 11/ Hull m 5 FIG 4 I INVENTURE H.T.JABKSUN BY J H ILL A TYS Patented Oct. 24, 1950 UNITED s rA'r Esf PATENT OFFICE I SHELF SUPPORT Hiigh. T. Jackson and Frank J. Hill, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Application March. 117, 1944, Serial No. 526,893

This invention relatesular reference to refrigerating cabinets.

Disadvantages of this type: of cabinet may readily beovercome,- by a modification of the average cabinet at present in use or by a completely new construction of cabinet, as will be apparent in the present invention.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cabinet having a series of rotary shelves readily operable such that. articles stored thereon may be brought readily to hand by simple rota tion of the shelf to position the articles directly adjacent to the accessible opening to the cabinet.

A further object of the invention is-to provide a construction of this character wherein the shelves aremounted. in a very simple manner for rotation butthrough which they may be readily removed for cleaning purposes.

A further object of the invention is to provide a cabinet construction including rotary shelves which while readily rotatable .will. at the; same time be sturdy and" durable. v

A still further object of the invention is to provide a construction'of the character referred to wherein the shelves may be carried. as a complete unit and readily removed from. the cabinet as a complete unit by one simple operation.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a rotary shelving construction for cabinets which may be readily applied to rectangular cabinets. of generally standard construction, with little alteration in the cabinet.

With these and other objects in view the invention generally comprises a cabinet having a series of circular shelves with means for mounting said shelves rotatably within the cabinet, said shelves being readily removable in a simple manner. In one form they may be centrally supported and introduced or removed as a complete unit, or in another form individually supported from their peripheries.

The invention will be clearly understood by reference to the following detailed specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a standard rectilinear cabinet with the door open to illustrate the application of circular rotary shelves thereto.

Fig. 2 is an elevational detail of the shelving unit and the general manner in which it is mounted between the ice tray compartment and the base of the refrigerating cabinet.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail of the manner of demountably applying the unit to a cabinet.

to cabinets with partic 5 Claims. (01. 2'4s 1s1) Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detail partly in section illustrating a practical bearing support for thebottom of theshel-ving unit.

Referring to the. drawings and particularly to Figures 1 ands, A- indicates a refrigerating cabi-.

net of generally standard construction which has beenmodified to include therewith a series of cir-.

cular rotary shelves B. .Inthis form of construction each shelf. I0 is mounted on a shaft II in.

spaced apart relation in any suitable manner such,

as by the bracket-arms l2- The lower end of the shaft. II is provided witha pintle or the like It While the upper end is provided with a depressible plunger element l4 housed within the upper hollow'interior' IE on the shaft and suitably outwardly pressed by a c0i1 spring [5 extending between a suitable mounting, in the form of a plug I'l within the interior of the shaft. l I, and the lower end I8 of the plunger.-

The upper portion of the plunger may be suitably knurled as at I ii and provided with a bearing head 20. The pintle: Ben the lower end of the shaft H is designed to enter a suitablethrust bearing 21 disposed. centrally Within the base 22 of the refrigerating compartment, while the bearing head. 29. isdesigned to fit within a suitable bearingsuch-as ball: bearing-or roller bearing element 23which iscarried. within a suitable.

fitting 24 disposed on the base of the ice tray compartment cabinet of the refrigerator, the bearing element 23 being aligned with the bear-,

"ingZl.

The shaft H and connected trays Ill are thus rotatably mounted within the refrigerating cabinet and may be inserted and removed as a unit very readily. In this connection it will be noted that the upper end of shaft H is provided with a bayonet slot 25 designed to cooperate with the projecting pin 26 on the plunger It so that to remove the series of shelves from the refrigerating cabinet it is only necessary to grasp the knurled portion l9, depress it and lock it in the depressed position by way of the pin and bayonet slot connection 26 and 25, whereupon the whole unit may be removed, since through this action the bearing head 26 is disengaged from the bearing 23 and the lower end of the shaft may then facilitate entry of the head into bearing 23. On the other hand, the adjacent peripheral edge might likewise be slightly bevelled for this purpose.

Likewise the shelves or trays I0 are readily rotated to locate clear spaces on them for introducing articles thereto. Furthermore, the unit described may readily be used to convert the average standard cabinet, in a simple manner, to one including rotary trays, since the insertion of the bearing fixtures requires but little alteration, whereas in the case of wiring and accessory fixtures sufiicient space is provided for this between the rounded edge of the rotary trays and the back corners of the cabinet. Such a cabinet likewise may include suitable racks 28 on the doors suitably curved to coincide with the curvature of the rotary trays or shelves ID.

The shaft may be mounted in a manner similar to that described in Figures 1 to 4 by providing a suitable thrust bearing within the base of the cabinet similar to that a illustrated in Figure 4 and providing a simple bearing receiving structure 40 which may conveniently be positioned on the base of the tray compartment of i the refrigerator, employing a similar mountin and dismounting structure on the shaft including a plunger 4| and associated cooperating parts such as previously described in connection with Figures 2 and 3. Of course, other means may be employed for mounting and dismounting the shaft.

What we claim as our invention is:

1. A column, at least one shelf mounted thereon, an outwardly spring pressed plunger at one of the free ends of said column, a freely accessible hand grip formed on said plunger for manually depressing it, the free ends of said column being adapted for rotatable mounting between prepositioned bearings.

2. A column, at least one shelf mounted thereon, an outwardly spring pressed plunger at one of the free ends, a freely accessible hand grip formed on said plunger by knurling a portion thereof for manually depressing the said plunger, the free ends of said column being designed for rotatable mounting between prepositioned bearmgs.

3. A column, at least one shelf mounted thereon, an outwardly spring pressed plunger at one of the free ends of said column, a freely accessible hand grip formed on said plunger for manually depressing it and locking means for retainin said spring pressed plunger in a depressed position, the free ends of said column bein adapted for rotatable mounting between prepositioned bearings.

4. A column, at least one shelf mounted thereon, an outwardly spring pressed plunger at one of the free ends of said column, a freely accessible hand grip formed on said plunger by knurling a portion thereof for manually depressing said plunger, locking means for retaining said spring pressed plunger in a depressed position, the free ends of said column being adapted for rotatable mounting between prepositioned bearings.

5. A column with at least one shelf mounted thereon as claimed in claim 4 in which said spring pressed plunger is reciprocable in an axial bore formed in one end of said column and said locking means includes a slot in said bore, said slot having a notch and a pin projectin from said plunger adapted to ride in said slot, said pin being manually operable into said notch in said slot to lock said plunger in a depressed position.

HUGH T. JACKSON. FRANK J. HILL.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 317,133 Heilbronner et a1. May 5, 1885 409,035 Graf Aug. 13, 1889 465,621 Westphal Dec. 22, 1891 965,526 Johnson July 26, 1910 1,101,849 Hines June 30, 1914 1,548,056 Moore Aug. 4, 1925 1,904,110 Willman Apr. 18, 1933 1,929,677 Davis Oct. 10, 1933 2,025,416 Limerick Dec. 24, 1935 2,142,008 Scott Dec. 27, 1938 2,326,064 Pittman Aug. 3, 1943 2,346,914 Drucker Apr. 18, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 134,039 Switzerland Sept. 16, 1929 

